


Not A Sleeping Beauty Fairytale

by isuilde



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, and magic, but not really, it has a dragon, iwatobi white day, knight!Makoto and knight!Rin, knights AU, sleeping beauty!Haru
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-15
Updated: 2014-03-15
Packaged: 2018-01-15 20:11:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1317694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isuilde/pseuds/isuilde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prince Haruka has been kidnapped by a dragon. His knights, Makoto and Rin, embark on a journey to save him. This is how the journey ends.</p><p>(a.k.a how the Prince gets his two knights to marry each other.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not A Sleeping Beauty Fairytale

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Iwatobi White Day Event](http://iwatobiwhiteday.dreamwidth.org/), a White Day gift for my dearest soul mate [mystearika](http://mystearika.tumblr.com/). Once upon a time she requested for a knights AU. Here it is.

The gargantuan wolf goes down with an earsplitting shriek under Makoto’s sword.

Rin’s kusarigama is still stuck on the creature’s underjaw, and Rin swears a blue streak as its weight pulls him down along, feet skidding on the ground as he tries to keep his grip on the chains in his hands. Makoto yells something at him from the top of the creature’s nape, but he’s too busy concentrating on not slipping down and accidentally got crushed by the giant wolf they’ve been fighting for the last four hours to pay attention to what his fellow knight is shouting.  
  
“Goddamn—fuckfuckfuck—“ he pulls and pulls at the chain, panic starting to claw its way up his chest, because he’s now right underneath the wolf’s belly, and he’d be crushed like this, fuck, there’s no way he’s going to die right here, not after he’s come so far, not when the tower where Haruka—their Prince and childhood best friend—sleeps is just down the winding forest path. He tugs hard, once again, to no avail, and that’s when he finally hears Makoto’s voice: “Slice it, Rin! To your right!”

Instinct takes over, and Rin changes his hold, pulls to his right in a smooth movement and slices through the wolf’s neck, freeing his kusarigama as he does it. He lets out a triumphant shout, rolls out of danger’s way, and feels rather than hear the wolf’s enormous body hit the ground.

The impact sends him flying several good meters off. He lands on his back, air completely knocked out of his lungs, and he hacks once-twice-thrice trying to get some oxygen into his lungs. He hears Makoto’s voice, and then there are hands pulling at him, propping him up. Rin scrabbles at them because he still can’t breathe, there’s so much dust and dirt and everything is shaking, he’s got to stay low—

“Rin!” Makoto’s shout pierces through his dazed mind, and Rin snaps back to reality. “Sorry, I’m sorry—it’s okay, sorry, sorry, I should’ve pulled you out before it hit the ground, sorry—“

For a second, Rin could barely hear anything except Makoto’s breath against his ears, sharp and too fast. The wolf lies unmoving some ways off, the remnants of battle marring the once lush and untainted part of the forest. The chains of his kusarigama are still in loose circles around his wrists, tangled between his fingers.

“Fine,” Rin grits out gruffly, heart still racing, adrenaline still running through every single of his being. He takes a deep breath, then lets go of the chains and pats Makoto’s hand. “I’m fine, Makoto, let go.”

Makoto’s forehead rests against the back of Rin’s head. “Sorry.”

“That was my mistake, I miscalculated, you had nothing to do with it—hey,” Rin twists around, presses his lips hard against the corner of Makoto’s mouth. “We won. We’re good. We’re fine.”

The tight grip Makoto has on Rin’s shoulder relaxes. “…Yeah. Yeah, we won.” The brunette hesitates for a second, before leaning forward, catching Rin’s lower lip in a kiss, and Rin presses against him harder. It feels like forever before he finally lets Makoto go, and by then, Makoto’s soft smile is back.

Rin silently deems it okay. At least until he turns to look at Makoto properly and sees the long gash along the older boy’s side.

“Shit, you’re hurt.” He reaches out without thinking, pushing Makoto’s arm aside to get a good look on the wound, making the latter wince. “It’s still bleeding. The claws got you?”

“Teeth, actually. Just kind of scratched me when I—ow, ow, Rin—“

“Should’ve given me a holler that it got you, idiot. Hold still, you’re making it worse.” Rin concentrates, remember the complicated verse his mother used to sing as a lullaby since he’s small. The air shifts, and Rin’s hand starts glowing warm gold. Slowly, the wound closes, scabbing over before they fall off and new skin forms underneath, leaving a prominent scar. Rin’s healing had never been as good as Gou’s, but he’s good enough to do this, at least.

“There. Good?”

Makoto looks at him in awe, just like he does whenever Rin performs the healing art. “That’s beautiful.”

“I was asking about your wound, idiot.”

“Oh—“ Makoto wriggles in place a little, smiling. “It’s good. A bit stiff, but I’ll walk it off.”

“You might rip it open again,” Rin grumbles, pushes to his feet. Makoto follows suit, and they look down at the winding path the wolf previously guarded. “This way to our prince?”

Makoto hums lightly, but Rin could see a new focus and determination in his eyes. “Think there’d still be a dragon guarding the tower?”

Rin snorts. “Always.”

**\-----o0o-----**

They actually have to retreat and regroup when they meet the dragon. Mostly because they never expected it to breathe both fire and ice, but also because the tower is very old and they’re risking it fall if they continued the fight so close to it. That’s one thing they can’t afford, considering Haruka is inside the tower.

Makoto looks up towards the tower wistfully. “I hope Haru is alright.”

“It’s not like we’re leaving him to wait for another thousand years,” Rin grunts, poking the dying fire. He shifts, stomping on the anxiety creeping up his throat. “He’d only been kidnapped for almost a week; he could deal waiting another night.”

Makoto glances at him and smiles. “Then you shouldn’t worry about him too much either, Rin.”

“I’m not,” Rin sniffs. But Makoto is scooting closer, pressing hard against his side, the blanket they’re sharing barely enough to cover the two of them. Rin gives up and lets Makoto worms his way into Rin’s arms, resting his head on Rin’s shoulder.

“You’re tired,” Makoto states, because Rin’s been healing the both of them over and over in the course of their battle against the dragon. They’re nearly out of elixirs now—one wrong move in the battle tomorrow and they could both be dead.

Rin makes a sleepy noise. “I’m thinking which one of us should kiss Haru awake tomorrow.”

Makoto chuckles. “You should do it,” he says, and Rin has to give it to him that he could say it with only the slightest catch in his breath. Even after all this time, there’s still the slightest of insecurity threatening to bring them under whenever it comes to Haruka. But that’s because Haruka is important, to both him and Makoto, and he’s irreplaceable. “Everyone in the Kingdom’s been expecting the two of you to hook up sooner or later anyway, what with the tension of your rivalry—“

Rin groans. “We’ve been through this, Makoto.” He threads his fingers into Makoto’s hair, the strands tangling between his fingers, grimy and dirty. They both need a bath badly. “Besides, they say the curse could only be broken if Haru’s kissed by his one true love, and we both know it’s not going to happen with me. You kiss him. You’re practically his husband anyway.”

Makoto shakes his head softly. “Not me. Haru’s the one who pushed me to confess to you in the first place.”

“Then we just kiss him at the same time,” Rin dismisses. “With luck, he might wake up and demand us to kiss each other.”

Makoto laughs, shoulders shaking with the force of it. Rin loves that. “How is that even going to work, geez.”

The dragon’s roar echoes into the dark of the night as the last embers of the fire die down. Rin starts humming the healing art lullaby sleepily, slumping into Makoto as much as Makoto slumps into him, voice petering off as they finally drift into a fitful sleep.

**\-----o0o-----**

They come out victorious. Barely clinging to life, but victorious.

Rin doesn’t want to think about what would happen if Haruka doesn’t wake up from his or Makoto’s kiss, because he isn’t sure if they could make it back to the kingdom with such a grave injury. His left arm is completely crushed and the wound on his thigh is still bleeding freely even with the emergency tourniquets he fashioned off his tunic. Makoto is obviously concussed, and his back is burnt so badly Rin could actually smell it. That’s still not counting the small scratches and gashes he’d tried to heal off their bodies—not a good amount of them, considering he only has so little energy left.

Haruka’s the only one who could heal them well enough to go back to the kingdom, at this point.

They pull each other up the stairs, holding onto each other, praying to whatever deity up there that there would be no enemy left. When the door that leads to the highest level of the tower finally looms before them, Rin nearly sobs in relief.

“Just a bit more,” Makoto says, pushing Rin forward, and Rin pulling him at the same time. They push the door open and stumble into a spacious white room with nothing in it except a window and a bed, where a figure sleeps peacefully, short dark hair a contrast against the stark white sheets.

“Haru,” Makoto breathes, thankful, and Rin nearly collapses to his knees in relief.

They drag themselves across the room, practically collapsing on each side of the bed, taking a moment to watch Haruka sleep, his chest expanding with every inhale of air. Rin and Makoto stay silent, immersing in the heady feeling of yes, Haruka is alive, yes, their best friend is okay, and all they have to do is wake him up.

“Look at him,” Rin grumbles. “Fucking Haru, sleeping so peacefully at a time like this.”

Makoto chuckles. “At least he looks like he’s having a great dream.”

“Probably dreaming that he’s soaking in the royal pool,” Rin snits, but the corners of his mouth are twitching up. “Might as well do this.”

Makoto blinks. “Rin?”

“We’d gone through so much shit for him, let me get back at him a little, okay.” Rin closes his eyes, reaching to what little energy he has left inside, and recalls the incantation of Gou’s favorite water spell.

He chants, flicking his hand, and out of nowhere, above Haruka, water comes down.

Makoto yelps, surprised. “Rin!”

Rin grins. “Serves him right. You can kiss him now, Makoto.”

“No—I mean, what? What are you doing, look, he’s completely soaked, he’d catch a cold, it’s almost winter out there—“

“He can magicked himself dry once he wakes up anyway—“

“That doesn’t mean you should dump water on him while he’s asleep, oh my god, Rin—“

“Lighten up, idiot, he loves water, in case you forgot—“

“You guys are a mess.” Haruka states, blue eyes blinking wide open at the sight of his two best friends arguing over Rin’s prank.

For a second, everything falls silent, and then Makoto and Rin both exclaim, “Haru!” and the three tumble back onto the bed, arms and feet tangling over each other.

**\------o0o------**

Haruka heals them both even as they’re tangled in a messy heap of a group hug, the talented bastard. This once, though, Rin is very grateful for that.

Critical blue eyes run over Makoto and Rin’s figures, the slightest hint of worry flashing over Haruka’s face as he search for any injuries left. When he finally nods to himself, Haruka turns to the door, still wide open. “You guys got the dragon.”

“Barely,” Makoto says, smiling wide. “We were kind of worried you wouldn’t wake up, since we have no idea who your true love is, and we weren’t sure if you’d wake up even if we kiss you.”

Haruka blinks. “Did you?”

“No, Rin dumped water on you first.”

Rin gives Haruka a stink eye. “Should’ve realized your true love is water, goddammit Haru.” He groans. “Should’ve just flooded the whole tower, you’d like that, you’d probably just soak in here and not come home, fuck.”

Haruka shrugs, closes his eyes, and for a second his whole body glows a soft red, and then he’s dry. So unfair. “Let’s go home, I want to swim.”

“I hate you so much,” Rin grouches, but he stands up and takes the three steps back to Makoto’s side. Makoto’s hand rests on the small of his back, and his other hand is reaching out to help Haruka up from the bed. “Next time you got kidnapped, we’re not going to save you.”

“Next time I got kidnapped, I’d make sure the curse would be broken if you kiss each other,” Haruka says.

Makoto laughs. “Please do.”

Rin elbows him on the side, hard. “I am not fighting another fucking dragon just so I could kiss you.”

“I’m hungry,” Haruka tells them, voice wondering. “Makoto, do you have—“

“Mackerel, yes, yes. It’s in my bag, I think I left it downstairs.”

“See, this is why you’re practically his husband.”

“Don’t get so jealous, Rin.”

“Fuck you, Haru.”

“Don’t flirt, you two.”

**\-----o0o-----**

And if years later, the fairy tale changes into one of how the Prince got his two Knights married to each other instead of how the Prince found his one true love, no one complains.

**\------o0o------**


End file.
